Rare collectible games, particularly SNES games (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) are becoming increasingly valuable as a niche market for them is rapidly developing.  Many gamers or former gamers are digging into their closets and attics for their old games and making money from their old hobby.  A number of outlets for the sale and purchase of rare games can be found around the United States and World. Local game shops, whether chain stores or privately owned, may offer rare games.  Online game retailers such as Lukie Games or A Plus Video Games, which claims to have “more rare games for sale than any other video game site on the planet”.
Racket Boy, an online field guide to “retro” video games and systems has pricing and game information for a number of hard to find games for SNES and other systems.  It may be a good idea to get a price quote from a site such as Racket Boy or a trusted video game expert before heading to the store to try and sell a game.  Retailers may not offer a price that is suitable to the game’s value, and if the seller does not know the product’s true value, they may walk away from potential cash.
Kunio-Kun No Dodge Ball Zenin Shuugou Tournament is a case of a very valuable Super Nintendo game.  This product, when found in a Special Gold cartridge is extremely rare and worth between a thousand and twelve hundred dollars.  However, according to the SNES Games Guide, the average price for a rare SNES game is between thirty and one hundred and fifty dollars.  Still, that is no chump change for a game that would otherwise be collecting dust!
Some Super Nintendo games that are considered “rare” routinely sell for very low prices.  Some examples include Super Turrican 2, which sells for twenty one to fifty dollars, while No Escape sells for five or six.
Rare collectible games can be a source of extra cash for the retired gamer, particularly if he or she is in possession of some retro SNES games!

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Spyware is a common problem for many computers. These little programs operate beneath the visible processes on a user’s computer, and over time gather information on the user based on the websites that they browse and the content that they download. Using this information, many advertisements are sent to the user’s computer (known as pop-ups) without the user’s consent (and most often, interest). If you have a modern, high-powered PC it may take a few weeks for the spyware to slow down your computer, but if you are using an older PC, laptop, or netbook, you will experience the annoyance of spyware almost immediately.

To eliminate spyware, a little bit of personal responsibility is required. Removing these articles of malware from your computer can be as simple as downloading a program that will do it for you. Permanent spyware protection depends on two things: getting rid of current spyware and keeping an active program running to prevent future spyware from latching onto your machine.

One of the most widely used and reliable anti-spyware programs available is known as Spybot – Search and Destroy. This free program is extremely useful for locating and getting rid of the hidden spyware processes that can be situated on a computer at any time. Amongst its useful features is a real-time process that will prevent spyware from installing itself on your computer. Another recommended program is Ad-Aware SE, with a scanner and remover of spyware available to user for free and additional features, such as a real-time prevention process, that can be bought later.
Because of how quickly spyware can make itself present on a computer, sometimes even without your knowledge, one must regularly launch these programs to make sure that spyware does not linger on their computer. A recommended course of action to take is to utilize an anti-spyware program once a week, at a scheduled and appointed time to provide more time free from spyware. Depending on your internet activity, scheduled spyware elimination periods can vary anywhere from one day to one month. With careful maintenance of your computer, you can significantly alter the amount of malware that is present on it.

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Sometimes the typical DAW interface for writing electronic music can get tiring, the same old horizontal, left to right progression of musical notes that one always sees in software of this type.  Ableton, a German company of programmers and music producers, set out a few years ago to change the landscape of music composition forever with their flagship product, Ableton Live.

Live represents a sea change in how music is composed, breaking the musical material into two distinct views, the session view and the arrange view.  The arrange view is perhaps the one that will be more familiar to producers who have used traditional software.  This view is the left to right style progression that plays through the finished product, beginning to end.  Ableton has provided a few necessary tools along with a an extremely clean interface for laying out of your patterns side by side.  You can also go in and massage the boundaries between clips, creating custom transitions and changeups to add interest to your track.

Perhaps more interesting than the arrange view is the session view.  This is the main thing that sets Live apart from all the other competitors in the market.  Here, you have a 2 dimensional grid of slots, where the columns represent individual tracks with multiple clips running down their lengths, while the rows represent “scenes” of clips that you can quickly combine and rearrange to come up with new song ideas.

Live also provides a large number of unique special effects, ranging anywhere from the insane sounding grain delay to the tried and true standbys like reverb and chorus.  There’s something for everyone in this program, striking the balance between providing useful tools while not overhwhelming the producer with options that don’t really need to be there.

If you’d like to check out some Ableton tutorials, please feel free to stop by Nicks Tutorials for more information, including in depth video series on sound design in Ableton Live!

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Touch screen mobile phones are the very latest in hot gadgets. However, it does not seem like too long ago that we were talking about the Blackberry. Blackberries are now old news and if you wish to stay in touch with the very latest technology then you will require a touch screen cellphone.

Apple is the major innovator behind touch screen mobile phones. The Apple iPhone has become a phenomenon since its launch in the year 2007. Ever since then, the iPhone has continued to grow in popularity and its sale have continued to be steady, first with the iPhone 3G release and then with the higher-spec 3GS iPhone which was released in 2009.

Now, several other manufacturers are hot on their heels in an attempt to capture a portion of their share of the market. However, touch screen cellphones are not cheap to buy. They are more costly to manufacture in comparison to standard phones and hence, the cost of their manufacture is relayed to the consumer in the price of the phone itself.

One thing that is for certain is that this touch screen technology will become more prevalent and will feature highly in electronic items which are released in the future. Apple has recently launched its iPad and although there is great curiosity surrounding it, it has not been completely taken onboard yet. However, this is likely to change and the iPad will some become just as prevalent as Apple’s iPhone and iPod.

So, apart from the Apple iPhone, what top new touch screen mobile phones will we see in 2010?

Well, several of the new phone models will undoubtedly capitalize on the new operating system, Android, from Google. A whole range of phones which incorporate the Android operating system have already been released by a variety of manufacturers and many others are still in production.

Microsoft has recently announced their intention to release the Windows Phone 7. This phone makes use of Microsoft’s own mobile phone operating system. If the schedule for its release is adhered to, it is unlikely to be released until around Christmas time. The phone will include many interesting features including Xbox Live (for playing games with multiple players) and Zune (for watching videos and playing music). Whether this phone will prove strong competition for the iPhone is yet to be seen.

Samsung is another manufacturer which is gambling on the use of its very own operating system in the Samsung Wave. Samsung are taking a big risk by going head to head with Apple and Microsoft as well as the Google Android. However, the phone is beautiful and by maintaining a hold on their environment, Samsung may just have manufactured a phone which can prove a strong rival to the iPhone.

Other phones to look out for include two Sony Ericsson models – Xperia X10 mini pro and Vivz; a variety of HTC models including the HD Mini, Legend and Desire; the Samsung Bean; and the Motorola Milestone, which is similar to the Droid phone which was launched not long ago in the US.

As you can see, there is a range of exciting new technology to look out for when it comes to touch screen mobile phones.

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This DLGuard review pulls together three years experience of writing ebooks and selling them online using DLGuard’s shopping cart and automated digital download functionality.

Back in 2007 I begun writing ebooks and software plug-ins (for music applications) and was looking for a way to sell them on my own web domain. A work colleague recommended DLGuard due to its functionality and ease of use.

Out of the box, the product installs scripts on the target web server that provides shopping cart & checkout screens along with processing payments (with the likes of Paypal, Clickbank, etc) and sending out confirmation emails. The product includes a secure download link in the auto-reply email for the customer to download the digital product (it handles any type of file that can be sent over the web).

Securing the download link is where the product shines. It is possible to put a time limit on how long the link can be used. In addition a cap can be put on the number of download attempts. This stops users from sharing the hyperlink and the product being downloaded by multiple users from just one payment.

Most users will wish to customize the DLGuard web pages to match up with the rest of their website’s design. This involves coding some PHP scripts which is basic enough to refactor (or easily outsourced to a PHP developer).

As a starter sales product, DLGuard is a cheap and secure way to start selling products from your own web domains. This will benefit anyone with a lot of traffic coming to their site. Users with low traffic volumes would be wiser to upload their digital products to one of the hosted services online. Admittedly, you do lose control of your product marketing and cannot capture customer email addresses at checkout (like with DLGuard) but at least there would be the potential of more people seeing your product.

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